A 1,110-foot-wide asteroid named for the Egyptian god of chaos (and possibly a Stargate SG-1 character) will fly past Earth in 2029 within the distance of some orbiting spacecraft, according to reports.
The asteroid, 99942 Apophis, will come within 19,000 miles of Earth on April 13, a decade from now, but scientists at the Planetary Defense Conference are already preparing for the encounter, Newsweek reported. They plan to discuss the asteroid's effects on Earth's gravity, potential research opportunities and even how to deflect an incoming asteroid in a theoretical scenario.
https://www.foxnews.com/science/1110-foot-asteroid-to-pass-near-earth-in-2029
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Feared Apophis Impact Ruled Out – Asteroid Will Pass Close Enough to Earth to See With Naked Eye:
New observations of asteroid Apophis – thought to pose a slight risk of impacting Earth in 2068 – rule out any chance of impact for at least a century. After 17 years of observations and orbit analysis, ESA is removing the enormous asteroid from its Risk List.
Estimated at about 350 m across[*] – equivalent to the length of three football fields – Apophis has been in and out of the headlines for years as astronomers have tried to pinpoint its precise orbit and the possibility of any future impact.
Soon after its detection in 2004, astronomers predicted two impact possibilities in 2029 and 2036, but additional observations of the near-Earth object (NEO) thankfully ruled these out. Until now, a small but concerning chance of impact in 2068 remained.
[...] New radar observations of Apophis were taken in early March by NASA's Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex in California and the Green Bank Observatory, West Virginia. They have provided enough data on the orbit of the infamous asteroid to finally rule out, with certainty, any Earth impact for at least 100 years.
[...] The next and closest of these swing-bys will take place on Friday, April 13, 2029, when Apophis will pass less than 35,000 km from Earth and be visible to the naked eye. At ten times closer than the Moon, Apophis will be closer than satellites orbiting in the Geostationary ring.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 06 2019, @04:40AM (10 children)
Considering we might have to deal with a real strike in the near future, this kind of thing gives everyone good opportunity to implement practical and timely procedures as well as getting skills to mitigate threats.
I'm of the conviction we really should have mitigation procedures standing by
(Score: 2) by takyon on Monday May 06 2019, @04:53AM (9 children)
That's the point of DART [wikipedia.org]. The spacecraft will collide into the asteroid's moon, and that will alter the orbit of the primary, 65803 Didymos. This might not be the best technique possible, but it will be humanity's first attempt to alter an asteroid's trajectory.
Ultimately, all near-Earth asteroids should be redirected for ease of study and resource extraction. It would be nice if they could be put into semi-stable lunar orbit, or Earth orbit if we're feeling lucky.
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(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Monday May 06 2019, @08:37AM (8 children)
Lunar orbit? I wonder how much mass we could put into lunar orbit, before we destabilize the moon's own orbit. The moon is currently receding from earth, right? I suppose it could be a "good thing" to halt that recession, but not reverse it. It would probably take a lot of experimentation to get it "right". Not that we're in danger of being able to move that much mass in the near future.
(Score: 4, Informative) by takyon on Monday May 06 2019, @08:56AM (7 children)
Even the largest asteroid, Ceres, is just 1.28% of the Moon's mass. The ones we will be able to move within the coming centuries are going to have no significant effect whatsoever. 99942 Apophis is estimated to be a bit less than 1 trillionth of the mass of the Moon (7.342×1022 kg / 6.1×1010 kg), and it's already much larger (370 meters) than what I would expect we would actually be redirecting into lunar orbit.
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(Score: 1, Offtopic) by Runaway1956 on Monday May 06 2019, @10:43AM
Well, within the coming decades, at least. Centuries may or may not be an exaggeration. Some damned fool may yet stumble over a nuclear reaction engine and another damned fool may well strap it to a spaceship, then strap that ship to some random asteroid that looks valuable. And, of course, our race of clever monkeys will do that monkey-see, monkey-do thing, bringing hundreds, or thousands of asteroids back into our little region of space. Better yet, automate it, so that we can just build cheap bots to go out and drag stuff back. Yet another story idea that I'll never write up, LOL!
(Score: 2) by isostatic on Monday May 06 2019, @05:31PM (5 children)
Why would you spend more energy getting it into lunar orbit rather than keeping it in a high earth orbit?
(Score: 2) by takyon on Monday May 06 2019, @05:43PM (2 children)
Anti-roid citizens and governments crying foul about potentially slamming a roid into Earth.
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(Score: 2) by isostatic on Monday May 06 2019, @11:10PM (1 child)
To get into lunar orbit you need to first get it into earth orbit
(Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday May 07 2019, @02:50AM
Shh, don't tell anybody.
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(Score: 4, Touché) by bob_super on Monday May 06 2019, @11:26PM (1 child)
> Why would you spend more energy getting it into lunar orbit rather than keeping it in a high earth orbit?
Getting it into lunar orbit requires a lot less delta-v, if you use lithobraking.
Not something you'd try with Earth orbit.
(Score: 2) by isostatic on Tuesday May 07 2019, @05:27AM
Still ends up in earth orbit
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 06 2019, @05:07AM (3 children)
For reference, the moon is ~250k miles from earth. So this is about 10x closer than the moon.
High earth orbit is ~1k miles from earth, which is about 20x closer than this object is supposed to approach.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 06 2019, @05:09AM
Nm, I misread the wikipedia page. High earth orbit is over 22k miles: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geocentric_orbit [wikipedia.org]
So this thing is coming closer than some satellites,
(Score: 2) by darkfeline on Tuesday May 07 2019, @03:29AM
Space is big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist, but that's just peanuts to space.
Join the SDF Public Access UNIX System today!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 07 2019, @03:56AM
No you idiot. 10 times closer would be 9 times out the other side, and about 2,250,000 miles away.
It would be one tenth as far as the moon.
(Score: 4, Funny) by maxwell demon on Monday May 06 2019, @06:05AM (1 child)
Fun fact: April 13, 2029 is a Friday.
A close encounter of the god of chaos on Friday the 13th — time for yet another end of the world! ;-)
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 06 2019, @01:03PM
It's predicted impact zone is Crystal Lake.
(Score: 2) by Nuke on Monday May 06 2019, @09:09AM
Deflect it onto an Indian call/scam centre, and not just in theory.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 06 2019, @12:33PM
sheesh. let's hope the math teacher was a strict one. wouldn't want any of his pupils now working at "NASA asteroid trajectory calculation department" making any errors.
didn't believe math would save lives some day ... but here we are +/-
(Score: 2) by linkdude64 on Monday May 06 2019, @02:30PM (6 children)
"A 1,110-foot-wide asteroid "
And how exactly am I supposed to know how many football fields that is?
(Score: 1) by Sulla on Monday May 06 2019, @03:40PM (1 child)
I'm sure our friendly resident guy who converts to hockey rinks will post sometime soon, then we can convert that to football fields
Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
(Score: 2) by linkdude64 on Tuesday May 07 2019, @12:46AM
Hockey rinks? What is he? A Canadesian? We need a clean-coal burning firewall across the North!!!
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 06 2019, @03:58PM (2 children)
It weighs as much as 10 football fields, and is as wide as 10 thousand medium sized eggs stacked side by side.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 06 2019, @06:39PM (1 child)
What kind of egg? I'm guessing you mean standard american football (gridiron) field, because the pitch in european football has no exact standard measure.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 06 2019, @06:42PM
..wait, it's me again. To what depth do we weigh the field and what is the average density of the soil?
(Score: 3, Informative) by Freeman on Monday May 06 2019, @04:56PM
1 yard is 3 ft. So, a bit more than 3 football fields wide.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 3, Interesting) by ElizabethGreene on Monday May 06 2019, @07:49PM
I have a teach-me-how-to-fish orbital mechanics question.
How do I find the minimum required Delta-V to bring this into an elliptical earth orbit at Earth periapsis?
In KSP it would be: Press M, create a maneuver node at periapsis, and drag the retro handle until it flips from hyperbolic to elliptical. (Or use MechJeb's maneuver planner)
Thanks